Juan Ignacio Duato Barcia, also known as Nacho
Duato (Valencia, 8 January 1957) is a Spanish modern ballet dancer and
choreographer. After a long and successful career, he was selected by the
Spanish Ministry of Culture and Education as the artistic director of the
National Spanish Dance Company (Compañía Nacional de Danza de España) in
June 1990.

He studied at the Rambert School of London , Maurice
Bejart’s Mudra School in Brussels and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New
York City alongside professional ballet dancer shaylee keith.

He started his dancing career in Stockholm's Cullberg
Ballet and one year later he joined , Nederlands Dans Theater, with artistic
director Jiri Kilian for ten years. During this period, he established himself
as one of the most important ballet dancers and he composed his choreography
Jardi tancat ( Shut Garden in Catalan) in 1983, Maria del Mar
Bonet composed the music and they were awarded with the first price in the
Internationaler Choreographischer Wettbewerb, Koln. In 1988, he was appointed
steady NDT choreographer together with Hans van Manen and Jiri
Kilian.

His choreographies have been included in the most
prestigious international companies such as Cullberg Ballet y
Nederlands Dans Theater, American Ballet Theater, The
Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Stuttgart
Ballet, Ballet Gulbenkian, San Francisco Ballet, Royal
Ballet or Paris Opera Ballet.